Most of us tend to dispose of our used coffee grounds after making our favourite brew. In this blog we are going to explore some of our favourite ways that these old grounds can be used! So before you plop your full Flter paper in the bin, or scoop out the grounds from the bottom of your cafetiere, have a read through and you might discover a creative second use that is perfect for you.
1. Get Rid of Odors
One neat trick for getting rid of smelly odors is to employ used coffee grounds. They work much like baking soda does to absorb food odors in your fridge and freezer. Just load up a small open container with some old grounds and place it in the back of your freezer or fridge. Then forget about it for a couple of weeks while you collect more used grounds.
As a bonus, you can re-use grounds from your fridge or freezer and toss them in your compost heap or fertilizer!
2. Plant Fertilizer
Did you know that coffee grounds are packed with minerals that are essential for optimal plant growth. These key minerals include: nitrogen, calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and chromium. As well as this, they also help to attract worms, which will work wonders for your garden.
To use as a plant fertiliser simply sprinkle the used grounds onto the soil surrounding your plants.
3. Pest Repellent
Do you suffer from unwanted pests eg.mosquitoes in your garden?
Just sprinkle used coffee grounds around your plants to give them protection against many destructive garden pests like mosquitoes, snails, ants, and slugs. Ants Fnd the smell of coffee repulsive, while the slightly rough texture of the coffee grounds can irritate soft-bellied pests like snails and slugs.
You can even mix the grounds with dried orange peel to keep away some mammals such as cats. Or, you can use rosemary oil. Make sure you soak your used coffee grounds in water overnight to extract more of that coffee goodness, then strain your grounds.
Best of all, you can use the weak coffee liquid in a foliar spray. The spray will have antimicrobial properties that will also help repel many insects, such as caterpillars.
4. Face & Body Scrub
The coarseness of ground coffee can be the perfect texture for exfoliating your skin. You may be familiar with some well-known coffee scrubs - why not make your own to cater for your skin type! The caffeine found in the coffee can also increase blood Pow, which aids in overall skin health, and can be great for reducing the appearance of cellulite!
We recommend mixing a small amount of water or coconut oil with your coffee, you can then scrub this onto your body using your hands, to unveil silky smooth skin.
5. Homemade Coffee Candles
Do you just love the smell of coffee? Then you’ll love turning your old coffee grounds into delicious smelling homemade candles.
For this fun recycling project, you’ll need a small recycled jar, a paper towel, about a cup of wax candle ends, scissors, a wick, a small saucepan for melting wax, a small glass mixing bowl, and of course your used coffee grounds.
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